The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has selected 14 companies for a seven-month capability study that seeks to develop technology concepts to advance an integrated, multiservice commercial lunar infrastructure. Under the 10-Year Lunar Architecture Capability Study, the companies will collaborate to design systems-level platforms spanning multiple lunar services, including lunar power; communications, navigation and timing; mining and commercial in-situ resource utilization; construction and robotics; and transit, mobility and logistics, DARPA said Tuesday.

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Blue Origin has launched a mockup of its Blue Moon 1 lunar lander at its Huntsville, Alabama-based facility for use in testing technologies meant for a manned version of the vehicle for NASA’s Artemis 5 mission.

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The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will bring together government, industry, academia and international stakeholders through the Lunar Guidelines for Infrastructure Consortium to facilitate technical discussions and develop interoperability standards for commercial lunar infrastructure and related technologies. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory will oversee LOGIC to help establish an independent, permanent forum that will serve as a venue for various stakeholders to collaborate in support of the lunar community.

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NASA is developing a new scientific payload to launch as part of robotic Artemis missions to establish the age and composition of the moon’s volcanic terrain. The Dating an Irregular Mare Patch with a Lunar Explorer or DIMPLE spacecraft was selected from the third annual proposal call for the Payloads and Research Investigations on the […] More

A moon-orbiting spacecraft Terran Orbital built for NASA has completed its primary mission to navigate the Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit and has captured images of the moon. The company said CAPSTONE performed initial demonstration tests of the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System, an autonomous navigation software platform that helps the vehicle to determine its location without […] More

Lunar Outpost has joined a Lockheed Martin-led consortium to assist in the development of the defense and aerospace company’s lunar mobility vehicle. The Golden, Colorado-based technology company said Tuesday it will offer its Stargate software to enable teleoperation, data management and payload operations for the lunar vehicle.  Lunar Outpost will also leverage its expertise in […] More

Leidos has unveiled the design of its proposed lunar rover for NASA and will work with NASCAR to develop the vehicle through a promotional partnership. Leidos said Tuesday it has submitted a proposal for a NASA contract that seeks to create a sustainable lunar presence through the development of a moon lander. “This groundbreaking collaboration […] More

Lockheed Martin has launched a new subsidiary with the goal of providing an infrastructure-as-a-service platform for government and commercial missions to the moon. Crescent Space Services will initially offer the Parsec suite of communications and navigation services to keep lunar surface explorers and equipment connected to Earth using a small lunar satellite network, Lockheed said […] More

A Terran Orbital-built nanosatellite spacecraft has been integrated into NASA’s Space Launch System rocket to collect lunar surface images and gather data during the Artemis I mission. The Lunar Infrared Imaging spacecraft will launch from the Orion stage adapter to conduct a flyby, collect surface thermography and run deep-space operations technology demonstrations as part of […] More

NASA has awarded nearly $27 million in Phase II Sequential funding to six companies under the Small Business Innovation Research program to continue to develop technology platforms for lunar science and exploration and for unmanned aerial vehicles that could help address wildfires. The six small business awardees were selected for the Sequential awards after maturing […] More

Draper has received a $73 million contract from NASA to bring three Artemis science investigations to the lunar surface in 2025. The contract awarded under the space agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program covers the delivery of three experiments to the lunar impact crater on the moon’s far side, called Schrodinger Basin, and the Farside […] More

Terran Orbital, a small satellite manufacturer in the defense and aerospace sector, has successfully conducted the first round of maintenance tasks needed to enable a NASA lunar mission. A Terran Orbital team carried out the first TCM burn of the CAPSTONE orbiter satellite — which draws energy from the gravitational pull of the Sun rather than […] More